MIDLAND, Mich., Dec. 12 /CSRwire/ - Today, The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) announced the conclusion of its fourth annual Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award (SISCA) program. Students from 17 universities were honored with Dow prizes up to $10,000 for innovative approaches to the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges, including energy and climate change, health, water and food.

In total, 89 students from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East were honored in 2012, either as individual winners or part of a team. This year’s winners developed projects that addressed sustainability issues such as drinking water and sanitation in African slums, wastewater treatment and biomass production, techniques to change waste heat into electricity and how to increase energy efficiency in buildings. Winners have come from an unprecedented variety of academic disciplines, including business, engineering, nutrition science, media arts, policy and materials science.

“For four consecutive years, the SISCA program has provided an opportunity for the next generation of leaders to apply creativity and innovation to sustainability challenges,” said Neil Hawkins, Dow’s vice president of Sustainability and Environment, Health and Safety. “By increasing the number of universities and regions participating, we have enabled more students with diverse perspectives and approaches to tackle some of the most complex challenges of our time.”

Established in 2009 in alignment with Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals, the 2012 SISCA program added four universities in North America, three in Asia, one in Europe and one in Latin America. The full list of participating universities now includes:

California Institute of Technology (U.S.)

Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands)

Fudan University (China)

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (Saudi Arabia)

Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Mexico)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (U.S.)

Northwestern University (U.S.)

Peking University (China)

Penn State University (U.S.)

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China)

Tsinghua University (China)

Tufts University (U.S.)

University of California, Berkeley (U.S.)

University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)

University of Michigan (U.S.)

University of Minnesota (U.S.)

University of São Paulo (Brazil)

Each university selects one grand prize and one runner-up winner utilizing a peer-review selection process, with judges from both the university and Dow. Grand prize winners receive a $10,000 Dow prize and runners-up receive a $2,500 Dow prize.

Judging follows broad criteria set by the SISCA program, evaluating project potential for solving world challenges in the spirit of Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals; interdisciplinary collaboration; and demonstrated innovative thinking and excellence in research.

Dow (NYSE:DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2011, Dow had annual sales of $60 billion and employed approximately 52,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 197 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

Dow Chemical Company

With annual sales of $54 billion and 46,000 employees worldwide, Dow is a diversified chemical company that combines the power of science and technology with the "Human Element" to constantly improve what is essential to human pr...